>> i don't think that one was scripted. i think he just came up with that. but that's ricky gervais for you. he always goes off script. >> live unscripted moments, not the actual script. come on. >> hadn't seen his own movie. >> i've seen it. >> i kind of liked it. that's for tonight. erin burnett outfront starts now. the showdown between iran and america escalating. iran says it has proof the cia was involved in the murder of its nuclear scientist. and a cruise ship p aground in italy this weekend. six dead, 29 missing and the bottom line on super pacs. the controversial groups that can raise and spend unlimited money. well, guess what we're going to do tonight? we're going to have peace in the middle east of pacs. middle east of pacs. let's go "outfront." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

tonight, our super pacs super shady. the presidential candidates seem to think so. >> the people of south carolina need to know the truth and when they know the truth, i think they'll find it's not surprising that governor romney is not as conservative as his pac and his campaign has said that he is. >> so, suh p per pacs were born out of the controversial supreme court case citizens united in 2010. the the ruling allowed so-called super pacs to raise and spend unlimited amount of money on campaigns, but they're not allowed to take direction from the candidate. they have to be independent. but are they? what we found is that the ties do seem pretty close. for example, the pro mitt romney super pac's treasurers spees was

romney's general counsel in 2008. the pro gingrich super pac founded by rick tyler. gingrich's former press secretary and bill burton, the president's former deputy press secretary. these super pacs do seem to be run by some of the candidate's super close friends. if you listen to the candidates, you'd think they want nothing to do with the pacs. >> campaign finance law has made a mockery of our campaign system. we ought to just get rid of these super pacs. >> millions of americans are struggling to get by and their voices shouldn't be drowned out by millions in secret, special interest advertising. >> get rid of the super pacs, the negativity, and then the candidates would be in control and be responsible. it would be a dramatically better system an more honorable system. >> so, where's the disconnect? all right. we're joined by bill burton, who

runs priority u.s.a. and charlie spees, the major pro romney super pac. okay, so let me just put the question to you both directly. you friends with mitt romney? >> sure. >> friends with barack obama. >> i love the guy. think he's doing a great job as president. >> but you know him personally for a long time. so, when regular americans hear this super pacs are supposed to be separate if the candidates, how do you answer the question that guys you're fond of personally and are fighting for professionally, that there's a line? >> it's no secret that we support the candidates who we support in this race and that we know them from before. but there are rules that have had to follow throughout there's been campaigns in this country, we're sort of following the letter and spirit of those rules and i have no doubt we'll be able to. >> do you have conversations

with the governor just to figure out what they want or what? >> absolutely not. it would be sort of strange if the people running pacs with respect strong supporters, so there's nothing strange about that, but there are clear legal rules about what we can and can't do in terms of coordinating on message, timing and communication and we fully abide by those rules. you guys got to admit from the regular person's perspective, i get that you want to support, you're both supporters of the guyings you're fighting for. how does the president not influence you, bill, when your coming up with ads and plans for your pack? >> we do our own polls. we have our own strategy meetings, our own group of people we go to to make streenlgics decisions for where we're going to advertise and why we're going to run those. it's not that hard to follow the rules. we strongly support president

obama. that's why we got involved in putting this pac together and we're going to continue to follow the rules. >> so both, the president and governor romney, they've said that they don't like super pacs. you saw governor romney saying that with joe scarborough and the president referring to super secret money. now, this is a tough situation because the law is the law, so you got to go ahead with it, right, even though you don't want to? >> i think governor romney makes a good point that the current campaign finance system doesn't make a lot of sense. i would argue that it's based on fine gold, the campaign finance law that pushes money to outside groups. candidates would rather control their own message. they'd rather have the money flowing to their campaigns and that would provide more accountability, but due to the finance restrictions, money, there's restrictive limits on what can be given to campaigns and political parties that pushes money to outside groups,

which sometimes are helpful to the campaigns. we certainly hope we're helpful to governor romney's campaign. >> the personal connection is important to most people, that you are on the same page. if not you, bill burton, didn't do a super pac for the president, someone else would. >> the issue is much less who on the democratic side would. it's the fact that who on the republican side is doing it. we didn't start because we thought the decision was the right one, but aren't going to let the private equity guys helping mitt romney's super pac get in there and raise millions while the president just stood by and his supporters did nothing. we thought if there's going to be -- >> so, he's saying you started it. >> well, bill likes to use sort of the buzz word karl rove and and karl rove has nothing to do with our super pac. >> his his own, cross roads. >> that would be great if he did, but to my knowledge, he and cross roads are neutral. our super pac is in contrast to

bill's group. everything we do is above board. we fully disclose our donors. >> every single donor. >> every single donor to restore our future is fully disclosed. >> early on, one of your first donations from the spawn corporation did not disclose and it wasn't until there was public pressure that we found out who was behind it, a former partner of governor romney's at bain capital, so maybe you've been pushed in the position, but maybe you ought to tell your political director, who will be dumps millions into this race on behalf of romney, that romney doesn't support donations from groups that don't disclose their donors. >> bill, you've cherry picked one example of the corporation where there was a mix up. yet, the reason that was came to light is because it was disclosed. you and the supporters of

president obama do not disclose your donors, so in contrast to what we do with restore our future, priorities u.s.a. doesn't disclose who's giving. all this talk about secret money, you're part of the problem and i would recommend that you follow our course and disclose everybody who's giving. you could voluntarily do that. there's nothing stopping you. >> now, will you do that, bill is this. >> we're going to follow the same rules that karl rove is following here and the way we sut up is we have a super pac, 527 action which discloses all donors and a five in one c 3. funny to hear these groups seem so unaffiliated when they have a same goal. >> and so people understand, the deal with super pacs, is you're supposed to disclose donors except if you have a chartable

a.r.m. if you said i'm going to be the hero and disclose it, don't you think you could force karl rove and others to do it? >> i think he's taking my lead when it comes to ethics. no, what we're going to do is not give karl rove, the private equity guys supporting mitt romney any more advantages. we're not in the position of saying we're going to step aside. >> but you guys are sitting here, mitt romney and barack obama. you're the proxies. you hadn't met before tonight, right? >> correct. >> even though you're technically in a full on war, but why not just sit here and shake hands and say we're going to do it different. >> restore our future discloses and you should do the same thing. >> some of the seed money from your organization did not come from a disclosed donor.

we're not going to stand on the sidelines and let folks drive a right wing republican agenda in a way that you know, unfairly allows them to play by a different set of rules. >> i understand it's probably good for your fund raising to take cheap shots at karl rove, but the hundreds of millions of in donations, you're making that up. the money going towards restore our future is fully disclosed. >> that's not true. you should check out some of the press clippings, but karl rove has pledged $300 million through cross roads -- >> but that is not -- >> we don't have a republican nominee yet. i certainly hope that nominee's governor romney and woul like nothing more to have support from other groups. >> you can throw up the smoke screen to make it seem like one group is for one thing, there should be different, a whole

different set of rules, but until they are, we're going to fight. >> thanks very much for both of you. i appreciate you're coming in and doing it together. i hope you'll come back and let us know what you think about this. their point of view and arguments they made about how close they are to the guys they're pushing for. just five days away from the south carolina primary. how much do we know about south carolina? john avalon outfront and schools giving students high-tech watches. counts calories and weight and then tracks it. what are they doing with the information? and a lot of americans bought guns at christmas. were you one? so, how was school today ?

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five days until the south carolina primary and if you listen to pundits and washington insiders you might think to quote john avalon, south carolina is quote a swamp of sleazy politics an brutal attack ads and bible belt bashed in red necks and racism, but avalon would say you are dead wrong. he's out front to debunk the myths. >> this is that time of year,

you know, the ugly stereotypes disfiguring a beautiful state. >> number one. >> this is the old one for back in strom thurmond days. it's had a 15% population growth in the last ten years. those counties along the coast, out of state immigrants, retirees looking for a better quality of life and then look at the -- >> a lot of those people coming from the north. >> a lot of jobs, manufacturing plants. we've got an indian american governor and then the new representative from charleston, tim scott. an african-american leader representing the first district. he beat thurmond's son in the primary. it's a great story and it's a sign of how the centstereo e ty

don't hold. >> oh, they say, south carolina, it's all about evangelicals. is it? >> bob jones university seems to become shorthand for the entire state's politics and it's not true. in fact, in 2008, you see john mccain won the state. he didn't have evangelical support, but was able to win the coastal cities because the majority of people do live in the cities in suburban areas. mike huckabee did well. mitt romney came in fourth. so the point is that there's a will the of room for a strong center right candidate to play in south carolina. >> all right. and now, to myth number three. you mentioned her, nikki hailey. nationally, lots of attention. a darling, but locally, darling ruler ore the tea party? >> no. and this is one of the most fascinating things. she's a national rising star, her poll numbers right now, only 35% approval. there's less than barack obama in the state of south carolina

right now. so while it's a great endorsement to have and mitt romney r's saying it, not so fast. in fact, the numbers tell a very different story. >> and this means that we'll see how we go this weekend. people think the evangelical sign means everything, no. we shall see. thanks very much. under surveillance tonight, your children. the government is monitoring the weight of students. this is an effort to curb childhood obesity. schools are giving kids high-tech watches to help them count calories and loose weight. school officials then track the data, but it's unclear where the information goes from there. students have received the devices in new york, new jersey and st. louis. joining me now is paul cowen and

mimi roth, good to have you with us. i got one of those watches. >> very nice. >> it's pretty cool. i would think a kid would like to have this. i would have loved to have this, especially in pink or yellow or something like that. so, what do you think about this idea? >> well, on the surface, i think it's not a bad idea. we want to encourage fitness among our kids and this is a way to mitor it, but i worry about the privacy implications. do we have the right for instance to find out how active a kid is after school, track his sleep patterns? these devices are getting very fist kated now and i'm worrying that they're going to get too intrusive and we're going to become a nanny state. >> the percentage of childhood obesity has tripled in 30 years. kids between 6 and 11, 7% were obese. now, it's 20%.

>> i love how paul uses the word, nanny state. what about the people who pushed these kids into becoming fat in the first place? they were bad nannies. let me have my moment. >> teachers are responsible -- >> these kids got fat and it was adults who did it to them. i think it's a great thing and this is why. it's information. teachers can use the information, the parents can use the information and the kids have access to this so they can involve themselves in making good decisions. >> fitness is a great idea and anything that will encourage it, i'm for, but we have to worry that some of the information could be leaked to sources that maybe shouldn't have access. >> let's put one of those sources out there. the insurance company. kid who and again, this is an issue of whether it's the kid, the parent or the teacher. but is not exercising, isn't doing what they're supposed to do and is eating too many

twink twinkies. >> what's not going to be news to the insurance company is that the kid is fat, which means diabetes, stroke, heart conditions. they're already tallying up that bill before they find out the other information. these kids are doomed. >> mimi has little appetite for privacy. >> where do you get that from? i didn't say that! >> i wanted to add another thing to this. i found to be very interesting. i was talking to dr. michael nagler. he was telling me you're thinking of this as monitoring the kids. you know what this is really about, it's monitoring the teachers because we're looking for a way to figure out how for instance, fizz ed teachers, these watches are saying what the heart rate is and how fast they move and how much activity. >> these things barely get more than a treadmill used to get. >> we're not arguing here.

what we're saying is this information is flowing in both directions. we're monitoring the effectiveness of teachers. >> here's what i have to say. forget this other stuff. these kids are doomed if we don't intervene. i applaud new jersey and new york for doing something. these kids deserve the right and chance to grow up healthy. >> let us know what you think. we'll tell you who wins. >> till the next time. next, three iranian nuclear scientists assassinated. ran says it has proof the cia was to blame and how many guns did americans buy at christmas? we'll be back. it's all you. that's why you have us. at staples, we have low prices on everything your small business needs. staples. that was easy.

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guns were a hot item this holiday season. according to the fbi, there were 129,166 requests for instant background checks from firearm retailers on black friday. that of course is the day after thanksgiving. it was a single day record in the united states and beat the previous high, black friday 2008, when everyone was so worried about economic collapse, beat that by 32%. which brings us to tonight's number. 1.8. over 102,000 of those checks occurred on december 23rd.

the second busiest gun buying day. even though they don't track sales, the fbi points out the number of gups sold during the holidays could be higher if c t customers passed the checks bought one gun. only 1.3% of people who applied for permission to buy a gun are denied. still out front, the out front 5. the politics of paul. >> also the only candidate with a plan to restore america. >> italy's cruise disaster. >> and as we were being lowered in our lifeboat, we actually slammed into the side of the boat. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool.

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we start the second half of our show with stories we care about, what we focus on, do the work and find the outfront 5 and first, super pacs. they can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns, but not take direction from the candidate. supposed to be independent, but are they? turns out super pacs are run by the candidate's former staffers. two came out front tonight. bill burton was one and charlie spies. both say they're following the rules, but say they will continue their super pac work even though each candidate has

criticized the groups. number two, wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on wednesday in protest of sopa. an online privacy act, a story a lot of people are passionate about. wikipedia is going to join redit and several other sites in protest of the antipiracy legislation being considered. the cofounder says the site averages 25 million visitors a day. number three, zappos has been hacked, compromising 24 million accounts. zappos is owned by amazon. it sent an e-mail the customers this afternoon telling them their passwords were compromised. the company insists the passwords were encoded, but we talked to an online security expert who says there's no question about this one. if you use a password or logon anywhere else, change them immediately. four, fewer americans describe the current economic conditions as poor, but the number calling

it somewhat poor has gone up to 42%. looks like an improvement at least in category. the same poll found americans' view of congress has reached a low for a cnn poll. just 11% of people approve how congress is handling its job. this comes out after the fierce fights of payroll tax extension and raising the debt ceiling. number five. it's been 164 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating, which happened after a fight in congress over the debt ceiling. what are we doing to get it back? tonight, the showdown between the u.s. and iran may be reaching a boiling point. crucial for our country's military and this election. the war of words is escalating on many fronts. iran says it has proof the cia is directly involved in the murder of a nuclear scientist and rounded up several suspects.

then there's iran's threat to cut off the strait of hormuz. 40% of the world's traded oil passes through it. you saw the video last week of the iranian speedboats approaching u.s. naval ships. today, tehran said it received a rhetter from the u.s. u.s. has two fleets in the region and warned that closing the strait would be a red line that should not be crossed. many say this time is different and could lead to conflict. william cohen knows how dangerous iran can be. good to see you. so, it does appear, we've been talking about this a lot over the last few month, but this has escalated. is that a fair interpretation? >> i think it has escalated and we have to be careful that the rhetoric doesn't turn to action. we need to avoid a conflict if possible. the iranian are now starting to feel the bite of the sanctions.

you had the e.u. on the verge of declaring tougher u sanctions and boycotting oil from iran, so this is really starting to hurt the iranian economy and as a result of that, the tensions within iran are starting to ratchet up and therefore, they start to make declaration they're going to shut down the straits of hormuz, which would if they're successful, cut off the supply of 20 to 30% of the world's oil supply. so i think after the rhetoric ought to be cooled a bit and they ought to understand that the united states and other countries are going to intensify these sanctions until iran understands it has an option. the option is to give up its nuclear weapons program and then be welcomed back into the international community. but absent that, i think sanctions are going to be intensified. >> if iran has reached a point of no return, the the more isolated they become, the less

they have to lose by using their weapons, but killing a lot of people. >> they've pointed themselves into a corner. some of the academics have said they have pointed themselves into a corner at which they have no option. they have pointed themselves into a corner by violates international rules as such and so, they have an opportunity to step back from their nuclear weapons program to allow the progress of a nuclear program that will be for civil purposes only, which they have declared to be their goal. so there's an option available to them other than what they're doing now, but they refuse to take that. more recently, they talked about opening up to discussion, so we'll see whether they have a real interest in revolving this peaceably. >> what would cause military conflict? what could iran do that would make the u.s. fight back? >> well, the one thing they have declared they would do would be to try to shut down the persian

gulf or straits of hormuz. number one, they could disrupt traffic for a few days or longer, but i'm confident they could not shut it down, but that would be red line that would be crossed and i think they would have difficulty from that point forward. i think the response of the united states would be vigorous. it would inflict great damage upon iran's ability to sell oil in the future for some time, so i think it would be a very serious move for them to take. hopefully, it's just boasting at the point, but if they were to take that action, i think the international response would be one that's quite vigorous that would be critical to iran and have long-term consequences requester its future. >> thank you very much. we're going to talk about the republican candidates view on iran tomorrow. so is ron paul surging or slipping further from the pack? a new poll shows the texas congressman in a statistical tie with president obama if they

were to face off today. now, this is pretty amazing. it comes after paul finished second in new hampshire last week, but he is currently running third in south carolina. he has fall p to fourth in florida and despite that challenge, paul is on the trail today pushing his member. >> we need to look into the morality and constitutionality of our monetary system, which means we have a full audit of the fed and a new monetary system. >> appealing to a wide range of voter, paul has picked up considerable interest from young voters. we saw it in new hampshire. just wonderinging, why the love affair, the young with the oldest candidate. lisa carr is a chapter leader for the youth for ron paul. paul is a student activist and tripp davis is at the university of central florida. good to have you with us. really appreciate it. and you're going to, you know, make this clear for a lot of people watching who are older

than you, that may not understand the passion. paul, why ron paul? what is it about him that makes you make calls, read his book and like him so much? >> because of his honesty, integrity and respect for the constitution the way the founders intended it and the only candidate with a plan to restore america and balance the budget. i believe personal liberty and sound money have made us the most prosperous and free society in the world. >> lisa, what about you? what makes you spend as you said, hours and hours researching every candidate before you settled on ron paul and now spend time canvassing on his behalf? >> absolutely. as a college student, i know firsthand that the economy is our biggest issue and ron paul's the only candidate with a clear plan to restore america's prosperity and that's why i'm supporting him with all that i have. >> tripp? >> ron paul is a only constitutional candidate. not just about running for

office and getting elected. you can tell he's honest, when he speaks, he's talking to them. he's not just trying to find the next sound bite. after new hampshire, he was actually thanking his supporters and i really appreciated that. >> let me just ask you the question that people have, that are skeptical of ron paul. they say get your passion for some of the things that you're saying, but cutting a there will dollars in one year, cutting all foreign policy entanglements is insanity. how do you respond? >> i think that a lot of that talk about cutting off foreign policy ties is really correct and that's not ron paul. that's not what he's advocating right now and cutting the federal government's budget by a tral dollars is what we need. we need to stop spending money. that's not going to get us out of debt. we need to face this crisis head on and deal with what we can right now. >> paul, are there some parts

about ron paul that you say, i don't really like that? >> i think we need to restore accountability because this affects people. the federal reserve has been bailing out big banks and ron paul allowed us to -- he was able to unit democrats and republicans, gadhafi and other countries, and this is hurting the american people the most. >> trip, let me ask you though, this is a crucial question for this election. if not ron paul, do you not vote -- what happens to passionate people like you if you're not running. >> what do you do? >> if ron paul doesn't get the nomination, i'm probably going to write his name in. i've worked a long time on his campaign. my vote doesn't belong to the republicans or democrats. it belongs to me and i'm choosing to vote for ron paul. >> would you vote if he's a

third party candidate, even if that means barack obama doesn't win -- >> no, and ron paul said countless amounts of times he will not run third party. it's important to remember he ran as a congressman 12 times with the republican party and he's running as a republican for president, so i think his best shot is the republican party and he's the only one that can win. >> lisa, what do you think about what some might say about what is the ironny of the fact here you are at age 20, passionate about the oldest guy running -- if he won. >> well, what i think is that his message of liberty and personal liberty and prosperity is one that's pretty young. our nation was founded on it. it's a message that's been around for over 200 years, but reaches out to the younger swren ration. there's a lot of college students, in order to secure our futures, we need to look seriously at this crisis we're in and ron paul's the only candidate that's prepared to do

that right now. >> lisa, paul, trip, thanks very much to all three of you. we appreciate you taking the time to explain how you feel and just people are really happy to hear people so passionate about a candidate. thanks. >> no problem. thank you. all right, now let's check in with anderson. what's coming up? >> we're starting with a story, i know you've been covering the desperate efforts from italy. 29 people still unaccounted for right now. we're going to have a live report from the scene of the disaster. we'll also speak with a rescue diver about what they are up against. also ahead, one opponent lobbed a money bomb. another tried scare tactics. nothing seems to be working. mitt romney is the clear front-runner in south carolina. could the gop presidential race be over in less than a week? we're going to talk to our panel about that tonight. those stories and tonight

ridiculous at top of the hour. >> and the cruise ship, was human error behind the death of six people? and hundreds of contractors being detained in iraq. many of them, americans working at the american embassy. we'll be back.

we do this at the same time every night. our outer circle, where we reach out to sources around the borld. tonight, we begin in iraq.

according to the "new york times," many of the hundreds that have been detained in recent weeks are americans working at the u.s. embassy in baghdad. now, formal charges haven't been filed, but the detentions have lasted from a few hours up to a few weeks. jeffrey is the trek tor of the fund and we asked why this is happening. >> they do not have the proper documentation when they enter the country. it seemed stricter security measures were put in place and that information was not clearly conveyed to contracting companies. >> and next in nigerinigeria, t news today that the country's president has decided to slash fuel prices, but not down to prior levels. two labor groups suspended their strike and urnled demonstrators

to go home. we asked how the striking has affected the economy. >> it estimates that each day of striking has cost the nigerian economy near rly a billion dollars and that's not taking into account the impact on investor confidence. the threatened oil union strike sent shivers through international markets and most investors will be asking what happens next time they face off. tonight, an american couple from minnesota, among the 29 still missing in the capsized cruise ship off the coast of italy. they have four children and 15 grandchildren. they were on a 16-day cruise with 4,200 passengers and crew aboard the costa concordia. as you know, it ran aground off the coast of tus kcany on frida. authorities say human error was the cause and the ship was

sailing too close to shore, perhaps to literally greet a friend. the scene aboard the doomed ship was one of chaos as passengers scrambled for lifeboats. >> we were waiting for like, two, three hours. >> the crew was so young. >> we were fortunate. we boarded a lifeboat early enough. we were taken to shore early enough. >> we were helping the staff more than they were helping us. >> divers continued to search the flooded cabins for survives and it's a disaster, but what is the cabin and his crew accused of? jim walker, nice to have you with us. 29 people still missing as we have been reporting. six confirmed dead. who is accountable for this? >> well, the captain, first of all, is obviously accountable. he's the master of the ship. he has the ultimate responsibility. he should be the last one of the ship if he's not going down with the ship. so he's clearly responsible, but

in akin to the master, the cruise line itself seems to be accountable as well. they didn't have any type of lifeboat drill to begin with. w. they should have known this captain had a history of deviating from his scheduled course. there's a lot of responsibility to go around, erin. >> a lot of people take cruises and they're perceived as one of the safest vacations you can take. we're coming into spring break and cruise season. a lot of people are wondering how common is this, you have crew that seem inexperienced, don't have proper lifeboat procedures, et cetera. >> a week ago, another italian cruise liner ran aground over in the bahama islands going to freeport. no one was injured but a large cruise shift with a 30 foot draft found itself in 14 feet of water sailing into a fragile reef and running aground. that was a week ago.

that had no press because no one was injured. if you look at costa, in the past two years, two other costa ship, the costa europea and classic ca had injuries to passengers and death to crew. in the past two years, this carnival subsidiary, costa, has had three very serious casualty situations. there's not a lot of press but these types of incidences are not as rare as the cruise lines want you to believe. >> 14 million people take cruises every single year, a huge industry, i believe $30 billion. if you're going on a cruise, how do you know? how can you find out about the record of the ship or the captain? i'm also curious in this case, captain schettino could be charged with manslaughter, did he have a record that would show up? >> there's no place to go for

the public for that type of organization. there is something called international cruise victims.org, where you can go and read stories about different types of injuries, sexual assaults, crimes, grounds and fires, that's a pretty good source to go to. there's also a professor in canada, ironically enough, professor ross klein, who has a website called crewsjunky.com, kind of a silly name but has valuable source of information. the cruise line industry are not going to tell you about all the bad things. they want you to come aboard and have a good time. >> right. >> if you look back in the past two to three years, there have been 15 major wash amounts, grounds, collisions and fires, primarily with the carnival cruise line, the carnival splendor a year ago, had a major catastrophe, with an engine room fire, it was disabled international waters off the

coast of mexico. our u.s. coast guard and navy, we had to send and aircraft carrier out there to retrieve the ship back to a u.s. port at u.s. taxpayer expense. these are types of things that do happen on somewhat of a routine basis. >> amazing. i think a lot of people were not aware. thanks very much, jim. >> thank you, erin. we've all heard a lot about economic troubles in europe. tonight, a human face and a truly disturbing one. you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes. i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t.

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today's essay comes from ireland, where a medical examiner believes the country's new drunk driving laws have actually led to more deaths. it believes tougher laws led to more suicides among older men who live in isolated rural communities because they stopped driving to the local pub for company while they drink. it's a bigger sign of a bigger problem in ireland. one of the reasons the people have to drive to the pub in the first place is because the bars in ireland are few and far between. it was once said it would be tough to pass ireland without passing a pub in the book "ulysses." almost 1300 bars closed their doors and a country once known as having a pub on every corner, only 7,500 left in the entire

country and suicide rates risen sharply with 13% of all people taking their own lives as they face a bleak economic out look. in that, ireland is not alone. and things are worse in greece where protests rocked the nation last year and suicide rates up by 16%. that's an incredible number when you consider a couple years ago, greece had the lowest suicide rate in europe. even worse, this week, the greek orthodox church reported more and more cases of parents abandoning children in athens because they can't afford to support them. that's an amazingly horrible thing and amazing to happen in a place like greece. europe's leaders are not hopeful. french president nicolas sarkozy calls it the worst since the world wore and the imf says it could trigger pro- retraction,

rise prog texasism and isolation and exactly the description of what happened in the 1930s and not something we're looking forward to. everybody thinks you could never have anything happen like world war ii again. certainly, they would have thought that in world war ii when world war i was a very current memory. now, world war ii is a long time ago and we say it could never happen again, could it? nobody is in this crisis alone. countries can feel isolated and helpless and something we thought about today, there's a human side to even deserved austerity, even if your country drank at the punch bowl way more than you deserved, still a real tragedy and we're all in this together and all need to get out of it together. tomorrow, congress comes back from recess. are they ready to get something done? later this week, out front to south carolina, ahead of the country's primary. anderson 360 starts right now. we